Dhar

Now that the new & improved squetch rig is nearing completion, I've been thinking (more like day dreaming really) of ways to make installing the rig as easy as possible, especially when it coms to CP assignments and weighting. My thought is to have some sort of standard when modeling the character. For example; to model a simple cartoon character like Sam, there need to be parameters of splineage that will facilitate the installation of the squetch rig. A forearm (for example) would have no more than 6 circular splines that correspond with the squetchrig's forearm bones, then, with a single Action (click & drop), the forearm CPs (and the rest of the model) get assigned and weighted in one go. Is such an idea even possible? ::::: you may say I'm a dreamer - but I'm not the only one:::::

I have to much to learn. Here's an update. Unbelievable.mov

Great suggestions Robert, thanks. I'll go ahead and do that.

Yeah Marcos, I saw your entry. I'm glad you're getting involved, I like your composition, can't wait to see the final pass. As far as my entry is concerned, what you see is pretty much it. I already submitted it in.

Way cool, Justin. Loved the concept. Critique; the escapee could be more frantic with snappier moves and head turns. I didn't see arcs in the movements which would've added to the fluidity of the performance. I'd squash and stretch the lifting parts. Keep up the good work. The aesthetics of your piece are top notch.

Great work Sebastian. I really enjoyed that. More! More!

Good catch Ken. I noticed that too but I thought it was I who didn't use the null properly or that's just the way Sam acts. It would be better to have predictable results out of the rig regardless of the model it controls.

That works David Thanks man. Unbelievable.mov

Just tried to duplucate the eye master target problem but couldn't. It works fine - it must be the gremlins. Here's an update Unbelievable.mov

Thanks Paul. When will we see more of your stuff?

It's automatic. The CP weights look fine - I'm not sure why they move so much?

Thanks John. No, I am not using any mocap application. I have nothing against it, I'm just old school like that

David, that was not the issue. What was happening was that keyframes were being made but no movement. I'll try and repeat the action and see if it happens again.

It's the 'eyes_aim_at_Master_Eye_Target'

Thanks for the great feedback guys, I really appreciate it. I may have found a problem with the eye controls; when I turned the Eye target ON and tried to animate with it no animation is created. The eyes do follow the target, but do not animate. I had to use the Eye Aimer for it to animate and register. Its possible I'm missing a step? Unbelievable.mov

Update Unbelievable.mov

Thanks Mark. I will consider your suggestion for the right hand, but having the left one take some focus from the facial expressions, I'm afraid additional movements with the right hand will be overkill. I'm going for subtlety and facial expressions - we'll see how it goes. Here's some lip sync. Unbelievable.mov

Update Unbelievable.mov

I am not going to continue rigging my character with the older versions of the Squetch Rig due to the tremendous improvements achieved in the latest version. So, for testing purposes, I'm using Sam in this month's 11 Second Club to put the rig in a real animation project. First blocking stage Unbelievable.mov

Just to clarify; would that be the Autodesk QUAD DXF import/export plugin for Maya?

That is a great update. This is a world class rig with tremendous potential to make top notch animation. Really nice work Mark and David. Applause, applause.

Very nice work Michel. I don't use Firefox and I too cannot watch the other two. Are you attending Animation Mentor?

For a simple cube, you can either use the one that's in the Library, or draw a spline (2 CPs), choose the line then extrude to desired dimensions. Choose the 4 CPs and extrude again.

Finding the right cloth behavior will depend on mesh heaviness/settings, proximity to collision objects, rate of speed of movement and experimenting. It ain't easy, but if you keep at it you will arrive at a satisfactory result.

Unpickable only works in the modeling window but you can still pick it in the Project Work Space. After you click on the "Unpick" button you need to click on an empty area of your modeling window to "unchoose" the rotoscope. I hope I'm making sense.